Trails, Apartments, and Retail

At its July 25 meeting, the Richardson City Council approved a zoning change to accommodate the development of a 43-unit community of apartments and/or townhomes on 2.7 acres on the east side of Plano Road south of Arapaho Road.

Predictably, the neighbors were opposed. That required a super-majority from the council to approve the rezoning, which was delivered by way of a unanimous 7-0 vote. I was drawn to the statements made by council members before voting to approve. There's a lot to unpack in just the comments made by Mayor Paul Voelker.

Richardson Town Hall Meeting

A town hall meeting is an informal public meeting derived from the traditional town meetings of New England. Typically open to everybody in a town community and held at the local municipal building, attendees generally present ideas, voice their opinions, and ask questions of the public figures at the town hall.

Source: Adapted from Wikipedia.

In the spirit of a traditional town hall meeting, The Wheel has offered the members of the Richardson City Council the opportunity to answer questions posed by the public (and by public I mean me). Call it the first (and possibly last) informal online town hall meeting sponsored by The Wheel. All council members graciously cooperated with this imposition on their time. The questions and their answers follow.

OTBR: Werribee Open Range Zoo

Latitude: S 37° 55.938
Longitude: E 144° 39.468

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".

POTD: A Poem in Stone

From 2016 02 11 Jodhpur

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Ranakpur Jain Temple in Rajasthan, India. Pardon me while I go silent and let the unknown author of the temple's website describe the beauty of this place.

In the heart of the remote and enchanting valley of the Arvallis, skirting the rivulet Maghai and enveloped in the solitude of the surrounding forest, stands, in solemn grandeur, the Chaturmukha Jain Temple of Rishabhadeva. Placed on a lofty plinth, the three-storeyed marble edifice, to which the genius of the artist has imparted exquisite artistic grace, and which his deep devotion has endowed with serene spiritual dignity is, verily, a poem in stone. Majestic yet in complete harmony with Mother Nature, in whose beautiful lap it rests, this magnificent monument of devotional architecture seems bathed in celestial bliss. The very hills around, dwarfed by its imposing bearing, appear absorbed in mute meditation, as if spell-bound. The concord achieved between the bounteous generosity of Nature and man's creative expression of gratitude, stands uniquely symbolised in this Divine Creation. To behold this holy shrine in its spectacularly sublime setting is to experience instant uplifting of the soul.

Source: About Ranakpur Temple.

From ReactionImages.tumblr.com

Repeat Tweets: Scales Falling From Eyes

Repeat tweets from July, 2016:

• Jul 3 2016: "scales-falling-from-eyes kind of book". How you describe a book that confirms your preconceived notions. @roddreher
• Jul 4 2016: American Sphinx: Complex, conflicted, contradictory. Not the Thomas Jefferson in schoolbooks. No longer count me on Team Jefferson. B+
• Jul 4 2016: My Twitter feed is hard to follow this morning. Near as I can tell, Donald Trump is considering Kevin Durant for VP. Or vice versa.
• Jul 4 2016: So, Kevin Durant is taking his talents to the West Coast. Does that about sum it up?

After the jump, more repeat tweets.

Natural Allies

It occurs to me that the Black Lives Matter movement and the tea party movement ought to be natural allies. Wait, hear me out. The movements share some of the same policy goals.

BLM has as one of its 10 categories of policy solutions: ending the "over-policing of communities." The tea party has as one of its 15 non-negotiable core beliefs: "Intrusive government must be stopped."

BLM focuses on things like the criminalization of issues that should be handled by social workers or mental health professionals instead of police. The tea party focuses on things like red light cameras and the militarization of police. The root cause underlying many of the complaints, "intrusive government" and "over-policing," is the same.

If the tea party and BLM sought common ground and allied themselves, they would make a powerful political movement. Why don't they? I have a theory about that, too. ;-)

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016)

IMDB

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016): Female reporter goes to Afghanistan. Based on a real story. Watchable but satire doesn't have enough bite. B-

POTD: Do Feed the Animals

From 2016 02 11 Jodhpur

Today's photo-of-the-day is from rural Rajasthan, India.

Go ahead and feed the cows. The customary explanation given is that "feeding cows, or any other animal for that matter, according to the Hindu religion, is believed to be an act of goodness and humanity." An economic benefit is that "the milkmen in India let their cows roam free as they know they will get free food...It's like a double jackpot for them, because the cows return to their owner's place to give milk after eating [free] food."

Poor People, Go Home

Donald Trump and the Republicans have a plan to counter immigration. Namely, ban Muslims and Hispanics from entering the country, deport the ones here, and then quit trading with them. Or something like that. It keeps changing.

It reminds me of the 12th century story of King Canute commanding the incoming tide to stop. Contrary to popular belief (i.e., what I believed until I looked it up), Canute in fact understood the futility of this. (I recommend more people try fact-checking before posting on social media.) I imagine Trump understands the futility of trying to stop the tide, too, but is cynically trying to get elected by appealing to voters who don't.

A news story today suggests why Trump's followers are bound to be disappointed even if they succeed in electing Trump in November.

High-Rise Hotel Coming

A key tract at the entrance to Richardson's huge CityLine campus has sold for a major hotel project. Missouri-based developer Drury Southwest bought the almost 3-acre site at CityLine Drive and U.S Highway 75. The property is just west of State Farm Insurance's high-rise regional campus and near DART's commuter rail station.

"Plans call for 168 rooms in an 11-story building with four levels of parking and seven levels of hotel," said BC Station Partners' Joe Altemore. "Construction is set to start in four to six months."

Source: Dallas Morning News.

Maybe I should have realized from the start that the land at US75 and PGBT was way too valuable to ever be used, as promised, for a walkable, transit-oriented, mixed-use, urban development. I should have known all along that it would end up, eventually, like the IH635/Dallas North Tollway intersection. And so it is.

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To understand why I'm less than thrilled with seeing CityLine turn into another IH635/Dallas North Tollway intersection, read "CityLine, Palisades and Strip Shopping Centers."

India's 50 Million New Trees

Trees are a valuable tool in the fight against climate change. It's the ultimate in carbon-capture technology — but all natural, and without the licensing fees.

On July 11th, volunteers in India took this old-school climate-fighting tool to a whole new level by planting a record number of trees in a single day, beating Pakistan’s previous record of planting 847,275 trees in 2013.

It took 800,000 volunteers to plant just under 50 million tree saplings along India's roads, rail lines, and on public lands. This is all a part of India's commitment to reforest 12 percent of its land — a commitment made at the Paris climate talks last year.

Source: Grist.

What does this have to do with Richardson, you might be thinking.

Review: Sapiens

Amazon

From Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari:

Seventy thousand years ago, homo sapiens was still an insignificant animal minding its own business in a corner of Africa. In the following millennia it transformed itself into the master of the entire planet and the terror of the ecosystem. Today it stands on the verge of becoming a god, poised to acquire not only eternal youth, but also the divine abilities of creation and destruction. Unfortunately, the Sapiens regime on earth has so far produced little that we can be proud of."

"Sapiens" is another of Bill Gates's book recommendations for this summer. The paragraph above encapsulates the book's thesis, including the bias that, in the end, caused me not to like it as much as Bill Gates did.

After the jump, my review.

A War (2015)

IMDB

A War (2015): Danish soldiers in Afghanistan. War is hell. Then you're court-martialed for a no-win situation. Important for civilians. B+

Northwestern in Summer

From 2016 06 26 Northwestern

Northwestern University is not only a great university, it's a beautiful university. Set on the lakeshore of Lake Michigan in Evanston, Illinois, the view is stunning. To the south, down the shoreline, is the Chicago skyline. To the east, stretching to the horizon, is the lake. There's no better campus to stroll on a sunny day in summer (OK, there is one, but Northwestern is in the top two, honest).

All photos from our afternoon at Northwestern University can be seen on Google Photos.

POTD: Hanging Out

From 2016 02 11 Jodhpur

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Jodhpur, India. Just three ladies hanging out on the steps. Colorful. Comfortable. Commanding.

Request for More Parking in Richardson

It's not just downtown Dallas towers that are adding parking. The owners of a Telecom Corridor office building plan to construct a four-level parking garage to add more appeal to the project. The three-story Campbell Commons office campus in Richardson was built in 1998 at 1201 E. Campbell Road.

Source: Dallas Morning News.

I saw that and scratched my head. Why does that old office building need more parking? Why would today's tenant need more parking than the tenant who occupied the building twenty years ago? I can think of only one reason. Employers today are cramming more workers into less space than employers did in the past. And that can be for one of two reasons.

POTD: Easy Riders

From 2016 02 11 Jodhpur

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Jodhpur, India. People feel joy the same way all over the world. That is all we need to know for today.

Trumbo (2015)

IMDB

Trumbo (2015): Heavy-handed treatment of 1950s Hollywood blacklist. IOW, just like the true history. So-so drama, but important history. B-

POTD: World's Top Hotel

From 2016 02 11 Jodhpur

Where would you guess the world's top hotel is located? New York? London? Tokyo? Not even close. Greece? Vietnam? Cambodia? Believe it or not, you're warmer. Those are in the top five. Would you ever have guessed Jodhpur, India? Today's photo-of-the-day is of the Umaid Bhawan Palace Hotel, voted the top hotel in the world in TripAdvisor's 2016 Travelers' Choice awards. We didn't stay in this hotel, but we can dream. The photo was taken from Mehrangarh Fort, four miles from the hotel. Top hotels stand out.

Poverty, Inc. (2014)

IMDB

Poverty, Inc. (2014): Eye-opening. Poor countries don't need world's surplus food and clothes. They need jobs and access to markets. A-

Tragedy in Dallas

Many others have spoken, but I feel compelled to offer my own thoughts on the deaths of five Dallas police officers and the wounding of seven other officers and two civilians at a protest march in downtown Dallas.

Most of all, it was a tragedy. Five law enforcement officers lost their lives protecting the public. Their families and friends lost loved ones. The wounded and their families were also touched by tragedy. They deserve our gratitude and support.